Oregon Secretary of State Kate Brown made temporary changes to elections rules after a Feb. 4 intrusion of the department website forced officials to take down the state's online campaign finance reporting database.

(Michael Lloyd/The Oregonian )

SALEM -- Oregon Secretary of State Kate Brown on Friday made temporary changes to elections rules after a

database is down, though final details will be announced when the system returns, a department press release said.

A temporary rule will also allow Voters' Pamphlet filings to be submitted by email until the outage ends. After the site is fixed, filings will need to be submitted through the regular online system, the release said.

The department's Central Business Registry and ORESTAR, the state's online campaign finance reporting system, were

. Since then, business attorneys haven’t been able to look up existing business names, and campaign finance officials have not been able to report transactions.

The attack "appears to be an orchestrated intrusion from a foreign entity and not the result of any employee activities," the agency reported on its website this week. About 25 agency workers are investigating the breach, and officials are in the process of hiring outside experts to review security measures, department spokesman Tony Green said.

Officials reported the breach to the Oregon State Police, and the FBI have also been informed.

People with questions are asked to email orestar-support.sos@state.or.us.